Re: NEED HELP 540i vs 540iA

[John Edward Miller <jem@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Thanks Stu and other kind responders to my query.  I drove another 540i 6
> spd today and I found in somewhat less exhilerating than the first ride.
> I guess you always love your first!  It is still my probable first choice
> but maybe I should consider that M5 someone mentioned.  Local dealers are
> already SOLD OUT of the first two years supply!!!!!!!!!!!
> Yikes.  Is this a rich country or what????

When our 540 was in for service a couple weeks back, I asked the Euro
delivery staffer there about an M5.  He laughed a 'maybe next year' kind of
laugh...

> Get the 6SPD. Don't ever get a slush box. I recently went from a 1988
> 325iA to a 1996 200SX SE-R 5spd I will never go back I hate autos now,
> I wish my 325 was a 5 SPD
> Jonathan
> 1996 200SX SE-R (1/2 Airbox, GReddy Exhaust, 17 timing, K&N Dropin, RE -
> 71s = )
> 1988 325iA (Blown engine looking for transplant)

The enjoyability of an automatic transmission is entirely dependent on how
well matched the engine and transmission are to each other.  Yes, I agree -
the 325 automatics were not a happy combination.  On the other hand, there
are combinations that work well enough with an autobox that I'm quite
comfortable there.  Detroit torque-motors are traditionally very
autobox-friendly, and the Japanese in recent years has done an exceptional
job (go drive an automatic Maxima or GS400 - hell, even a Mazda Protege, it
is possible to make small engines work with slushboxes - if you don't
believe me.) 

European makers in general got automatic transmissions very, very wrong for
a lot of years - they'd use whatever off-the-shelf piece of garbage ZF or
Borg-Warner could offer up and slap the thing in.  It just wasn't a
priority for them.  You can, even today, walk down an entire block in
Frankfurt or Paris and never see an automatic shifter in a parked car. 

In the US, of course, it's a whole different world.  VW's loss of market
share in the US from the late '70s until recently was, so far as I can
tell, largely because the Rabbit/Dasher/Fox/etc automatics were sluggish
garbage that shook like a paint-shaker in gear at idle when introduced in
1975, and remained garbage thereafter through most of the '80s - while the
Japanese started off as bad or worse, but got much better, much faster.
In the US, if you do not have a good automatic transmission you are
shutting yourself out of 75% of your potential buyer base (and more if
you're talking trucks/SUVs.) 

Personally, what I want from an automatic transmission has little to do
with outright speed.  It should idle smoothly in gear, it shouldn't bog off
the line, it should upshift crisply, it should downshift IMMEDIATELY upon
fast throttle application, and a manual downshift should be likewise
IMMEDIATE as long as it won't overrev the engine.   Our '98 540i scores an
A on the first point, an A- on the second, a B- on the third, and maybe a D
on the fourth and fifth.

John.

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